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oi.uchicago.edu LETTERS FROM MESOPOTAMIA Official, Business, and Private Letters on Clay Tablets from Two Millennia Translated and with an Introduction by A. Leo Oppenheim THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS Chicago & London oi.uchicago.edu A publication of the Jjth Anniversary of The University of Chicago Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 6y—20576 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO & LONDON The University of Toronto Press, Toronto 5, Canada © 1967 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved Published 196J Printed in the United States of America oi.uchicago.edu Foreword This book contains the translations of one hundred and fifty let­ ters written in Akkadian on clay tablets. The earliest date from the time of King Sargon of Akkad (about 2334-2279 B.C), the latest from the period of Persian domination over Mesopotamia (begin­ ning 539 B.C.). The tablets come either from Mesopotamia proper or from regions to the west, even from as far as Asia Minor, Cyprus, and Egypt. I have selected these letters from many thousands of published clay tablets of this type to provide a panoramic view of Meso- potamian civilization during this extended span of time. My pur­ pose in making such an anthology is to convey a more intimate and varied image of this civilization than that offered by the readily available translations of Akkadian epic texts, royal inscrip­ tions, and law codes. Although the selection is, ultimately, sub­ jective, two guiding principles were adopted: I chose the atypical rather than the typical to reproduce, however inadequately, the kaleidoscopic diversity of life as mirrored in these documents; and I concentrated on letters that are reasonably well preserved and that do not urgently require comment and elucidation. This has limited my selection, and thus the picture offered conveys by no means all the richness and variety of the material at our dis­ posal. In an attempt to compensate for this shortcoming, I have added a bibliography of translated Akkadian letters (p. 201) for oi.uchicago.edu VI FOREWORD readers who wish to obtain a better coverage of the information preserved in these letters from Mesopotamia. To assist the untutored reader in understanding the complex background of the letters, a condensed survey of Mesopotamian civilization, its sources, and its development is presented as the first part of this book under the title "The Measure of Mesopo­ tamia/' The essay "Can These Bones Live?" introduces the second part and should bring home the difficulties and the challenge of the search for an adequate translation of Akkadian texts. The glossary of persons, places, and technical terms (p. 213) will help to identify events and personalities mentioned in the translated letters. My main debt of gratitude is to Dr. Maurits N. van Loon, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago. He selected the illustra­ tions—which I wanted to show features of individuals rather than the hieratic anonymity of the representations of Mesopotamian gods and kings—and also took charge of the map presented here. For the reading of the manuscript I am indebted to Erica Reiner and for that of the proofs to Dr. R. D. Biggs. oi.uchicago.edu Contents Illustrations ix Abbreviations xi Parti The Measure of Mesopotamia i A SURVEY OF MESOPOTAMIAN CIVILIZATION Part II Can these Bones Live ? 54 AN ESSAY ON TRANSLATING AKKADIAN TEXTS Translations 1. Old Akkadian Letters yi A SOLEMN WARNING / 71 BEFORE THE INVASION OF THE GUTI / JI 2. Old Assyrian Letters from Anatolia j$ BUSINESS WORRIES / 73 COLLECTING DEBTS / 74 3. Old Babylonian Letters js FIGHTING THE BUREAUCRACY / 78 TRADE / 82 DAILY LIFE / 84 LAW / 88 AGRICULTURAL MANAGEMENT / 93 oi.uchicago.edu Viii CONTENTS 4. Letters from Mari 96 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE REALM / 96 WAR AND PEACE / 105 THE COURT / 107 5. Middle Babylonian Letters 113 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS / 113 THE COURT OF THE KASSITE KINGS / Il6 6. Letters of the Amarna Correspondence 119 ROYAL LETTERS / 119 PROTESTATIONS OF LOYALTY / 123 PASSPORT FOR A MESSENGER / 134 7. Letters from Ugar it 135 KINGS, PRINCES, AND AMBASSADORS / 135 8. A Letter from the Hittite King 139 9. A Middle Assyrian Letter 147 THE HOUSEHOLD OF THE ASSYRIAN KING / 147 10. From the Archives of Nineveh 149 COURT AND COURTIERS / 149 PORTENTS AND RITES / l6o SOLDIERS AND DIPLOMATS / 169 THE KING AS JUDGE / I79 11. Neo-Babylonian Letters 183 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE TEMPLE / 183 CULT AND KING / 189 PRIVATE LETTERS / 193 List of Letters Translated in This Volume 196 Bibliography of Translated Akkadian Letters 201 Select Bibliography on Mesopotamian Civilization 212 Glossary of Persons, Places, and Technical Terms 213 oi.uchicago.edu Illustrations PLATES Page Head of Sumerian woman 11 Officer from Nasiriyya 23 Head of young lady 37 Head of ruler 49 Head of young man 61 Head of woman 75 Head of priest 89 Head of Ur-Ningirsu, son of Gudea 101 High priest 111 Head of soldier 121 Musician slave boy 129 Lady in profile 141 Bearded head 153 Head with hair and beard tinted black 163 Assyrian archer 173 Musicians at court of King Assurbanipal 185 Map 80 oi.uchicago.edu oi.uchicago.edu Abbreviations AAA Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology AbB. F. R. Kraus, Altbabylonische Briefe ABL R. F. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Letters AfO Archiv fur Orientforschung AIBL Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, Compte rendu AIPHOS Annuaire de lTnstitut de Philologie et d'Histoire Orientales et Slaves AJSL American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures AO Tablets in the collections of the Musee du Louvre ARM Archives royales de Mari (autographed copies) ARMT Archives royales de Mari (texts in transliteration and translation) ArOr Archiv Orientalni AS Assyriological Studies (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago) BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research BE Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, Series A: Cuneiform Texts BIN Babylonian Inscriptions in the Collection of J. B. Nies BiOr Bibliotheca Orientalis CCT Cuneiform Texts from Cappadocian Tablets CT Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets EA J. A. Knudtzon, Die El-Amarna-Tafeln Fish T. Fish, Letters of the First Babylonian Dynasty in the John Rylands Library, Manchester HSS Harvard Semitic Series IBoT Istanbul Arkeoloji Muzelerinde Bulunan Bogazkoy Tabletleri oi.uchicago.edu Xii ABBREVIATIONS JCS Journal of Cuneiform Studies JEA Journal of Egyptian Archaeology JEOL Jaarbericht van het Vooraziatisch-Egyptisch Genootschap "Ex Oriente Lux" JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies JRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society KAJ Keilschrifttexte aus Assur juristischen Inhalts KAV Keilschrifttexte aus Assur verschiedenen Inhalts KBo Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazkoi KUB Keilschrifturkunden aus Boghazkoi MAOG Mitteilungen der Altorientalischen Gesellschaft MCS Manchester Cuneiform Studies MRS Mission de Ras Shamra MVAG Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatisch-Aegyptischen Gesellschaft OECT Oxford Editions of Cuneiform Texts OIP Oriental Institute Publications OLZ Orientalistische Literaturzeitung OrNS Orientalia Nova Series PBS Publications of the Babylonian Section, University Museum, University of Pennsylvania PEQ Palestine Exploration Quarterly PSBA Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology RA Revue d'assyriologie et d'archeologie orientale RAI Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Compte rendu REg Revue d'egyptologie RHA Revue hittite et asianique RT Recueil de travaux reiatifs a la philologie et a Tarcheologie egyptiennes et assyriennes TCL Textes cuneiformes du Louvre TCS Texts from Cuneiform Sources TIM Texts in the Iraq Museum UET Ur Excavations, Texts VAB Vorderasiatische Bibliothek WZJ Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Friedrich-Schiller- Universitat Jena YOR Yale Oriental Series, Researches YOS Yale Oriental Series, Babylonian Texts ZA Zeitschrift f ur Assyriologie ZDMG Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft oi.uchicago.edu PART The Measure of Mesopotamia A SURVEY OF MESOPOTAMIAN CIVILIZATION Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? T. S. Eliot INTRODUCTION The state of Iraq and other adjacent regions of today's Iran, Tur­ key, and Syria contain the core of that part of the ancient Near East in which Mesopotamian civilization held sway from the be­ ginning of the third millennium B.C. into the first millennium A.D. Mesopotamian civilization also exercised influences of vary­ ing reach and intensity beyond—at times far beyond—the present borders of these nations. Instead of the customary linguistically oriented expressions (Sumerian, Sumero-Akkadian, Assyro-Babylonian civilization), in this essay I shall use the term "Mesopotamian civilization/' which I consider both more exact and wider in scope. I use this term just as we may use the term "European civilization" when striving to express the unity represented by the aggregate of Europe's indi­ vidual civilizations that confronts us as we view them in their oi.uchicago.edu 2 THE MEASURE OF MESOPOTAMIA totality against the backdrop of the non-European world. Thus, the designation "Mesopotamian civilization" emphasizes its in­ herent unity without minimizing the diversity that the several distinct regional formulations and the multiphasic development of that civilization produced within the geographical and tem­ poral limitations mentioned. The history of the region is expressed in the names of many peoples: Iraquis, Turks, Arabs, Byzantines, Greeks, Kurds, Per­ sians, Arameans, Assyrians, Hurrians, Amorites, Babylonians, Sumerians, and Proto-Sumerians have been identified in the area
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